#oh he is in his midlife crisis era indeed

[nikatyler]

🌈 2023 ✨

Another year is over so it's time for a look back at what was happening on this blog! I haven't really been around, it was just my queue, and maybe that's one reason why I looked at my archive and went "huh" at everything. I don't remember much. The other reason why this year probably went poof in my head is because I was dealing with some mental health stuff lol. I say lol but it wasn't actually very lol but I'm doing better now and 2024...is looking promising for now.

So, let's talk more under the cut, shall we?

January

We're in Bridgeport and Sawyer is living his best life. You know, girlfriends, boyfriends, being turned into a vampire, giving birth to three little vampires, threatening to sell his enemies' organs on the black market...best life indeed.

February

Okay I am now seeing that "talking more" about every month will be impossible since I actually don't have much recollection of 2023 lmao

March

Sawyer and Erin are at the best point of their relationship, but we left them alone for a bit and went back to NSB. Pastel just moved to Strangerville and got a...rather strange roommate.

April

The rather strange roommate becomes Pastel's rather strange wife. I love these two so much. We also say hello to Moss -- and also to Ross, who returns from...god knows where. I mean yeah, there was the ts3 Ross, but technically they're two different people. Parallel universes and stuff.

May

Thea is born and strange wife Jesse gets even stranger. That whole "merging with the mother plant" thing was kinda weird but I really enjoyed it. Idk what I was on but it was fun. And then, before returning to the lepacy, I posted my Cottage Living screenshots! ...which were really just me going "uwu what does this do" on every possible Wicked Whims option.

June

...and I went from posting weird WW Ross stuff to posting wholesome Growing Together Ross stuff. If that gave you a whiplash, I am sorry, but imagine what it must be like for me. I'm locked with this guy in my head 24/7. He's the whiplash king. A blorbo to you, a curse to me. A beloved curse tho. Ok I'm getting weird. Back to the lepacy.

July

Lepacy time! Loved the soap opera Generations gen. Kinda wish I had sticked to some of the storylines instead of going "eh nvm I just wanna play". I'm not saying I regret not actually letting Saywer go on a killing spree but also...imagine if he went on a killing spree. You don't see that in lepacies often do ya

August

August was...welp 💀 I was at the grippy socks hospital for most of that month, 10/10 would recommend, but my queue ran out while I was there so I just reblogged some old stuff for a few weeks.

September

September is just lepacy month. Cornelia and Archer are happy, they get married, they get more children...yeah. Good wholesome Generations times all around. It's not like they're gonna get divorced later or anything.

October

The twins are kind of chaotic, one of them turns into a ghost, both then bring their cursed imaginary friends to life...and the final child of Archer and Cornelia is born.

November

I loved running into Sawyer at the grocery store all the time. Weird vampire alleged killer grandpa behavior suits him. Dorothea goes away to a boarding school, hates it there and instantly comes back. Relatable. Oh and midlife crisis hits Archer hard.

December

And we're in December! Dorothea enters her horsegirl era and finds herself a girlfriend...and we'll continue that in 2024!

What's in store for the new year besides the lepacy? Well, Not So Berry will be making a return (and HOPEFULLY we'll finally get to the end. we need to). There's a story I want to do in the NSB universe, if you know you know. Before we dive into the next lepacy generation, I'm thinking of another BC with the gen 7 heir...oh and Marika's Black Widow. Shoot and I'm starting an irl job in January. Yeah no we're not doing all this in 2024, don't count on it 💀 But I'll try.

Happy New Year! 🎇

[cleoselene]

nine favorite albums in no particular order,

tagged by @an-ivy-covered-summer (thank you I love to ramble about music)

Portishead - Dummy - This is probably my favorite album of all time? It's perfect to me. It makes me feel so good, physically and mentally. It's the quintessential 90s album, the definitive trip-hop album, and always makes the list of "25 Albums You Should Own On Vinyl" for a reason. It's immaculate and it spawned a slew of imitators who never ever got close to this kind of quality. I think people also don't appreciate hop much trip-hop/downtempo has influenced today's pop music. SZA's latest album especially felt super trip-hoppy, so did elements of Midnights.

Massive Attack - Mezzanine - if there's one other trip-hop album you should pick up, it's this one. This album benefits greatly from Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins' ethereal vocals. Every song on this is amazing. When I was playing this album for a friend about a decade younger, he said "oh this is the album with the music from all the movies." lol. Indeed It's been licensed to hell for a reason!

Tori Amos - Scarlet's Walk - Okay I set a rule for myself that each artist would only get one album in this list to avoid putting up nine Tori Amos albums, but Scarlet is my favorite. This road trip across America immediately after 9/11 is one of the first albums to... if not criticize the US response to 9/11, because it was really too early for that, but to be very, very wary of what the response would be. It's an album that expresses sympathy for a wounded nation, while also acknowledging the nation's sins. I think this is one of a few Tori albums that was too high concept for the mainstream audience, but Tori has never been for the mainstream audience, anyway.

Taylor Swift - evermore - Of all the Taylor Swift albums, it was reputation that brought me to the dance and Red that made me fall madly in love. But evermore is her best work. It's perfecting upon the formula she came up with in folklore. Which, don't get me wrong, I love folklore, but with Taylor's obsession with being "sonically cohesive" it's kind of a bummer of an album? I appreciate how the vibes of evermore are more varied. Also, "ivy" is the most beautiful song she's ever written.

Green Day - American Idiot - This album doesn't need much description, it's so well-known, but nothing really compares to how hard this album hit during the height of Bush Era Hell. As a 26 year old when this came out, it felt like my generation was getting our mainstream protest music, finally.

Paul Simon - Graceland - This album won the Grammy for Album of the Year for a reason: it's soooo good. I know there's a lot of drama/controversy surrounding it, but I always felt Paul approached his love of African music from a genuine place. It's such a good midlife crisis album, I understand it now more that I am in midlife than I did when I discovered it at age 12. And the bass line for "You Can Call Me Al" is fucking legendary, isn't it? PS - Paul Simon is the greatest songwriter of all time.

VNV Nation - Automatic - Why was it so hard to pick a VNV Nation album? I really kind of wanted to put last year's Electric Sun in the mix, but I need to let that sit with me before I add it to a list like this. This is the album that brought me to the dance: "Gratitude" is an all-time fave VNV song of hopefulness. "Control" is the dance club banger to end all dance club bangers. I loooooooove this band. I wish there were more futurepop bands out there, tbh, it's SUCH an excellent genre.

Lana del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell! - This is Lana's best. It's not really even close. This is one of the best albums of the 21st century. The way "The greatest" so perfectly encapsulates the Trump-era nihilism... I DO want shit to feel the way just like it used to. Kanye West IS blond and gone. We DIDN'T know that we had it all. :( The ache of nostalgia in our current very painful times hits perfectly on this record (WHYYYY don't I own it on vinyl yet??)

Puscifer - Existential Reckoning - So hard for me to pick a Maynard project and not pick TOOL, but Puscifer has become my favorite of his three bands. Existential Reckoning is similar to NFR! in that it captures the political moment. Maynard has never seemed particularly political in his music until this record, which is pretty interesting. ER seems to be advocating for a return to rationality over ideology, of moderation over extremism, of science over faith. It takes a very humanist approach to looking at life in 2020. "Apocalyptica" is probably the craziest song because it sounds like it was written about COVID, but it was not, in fact was written just a few months earlier. "Bedlamite" is the coda to the album that promises hope: It's gonna be all right. When they did this album Live at Arcosanti and sang this song while the sun rose behind them, four days before the 2020 election and Maynard crooned that it would be all right, I looked at my roommate, and I said, "it really is, isn't it?" And we both got kind of overwhelmed. And then a few days later, it was. Trump lost.

I went into way detail >_> told you I like rambling about music

tagging: @swiftzeldas @emmaswanned @brightnshinythings @mariacallous @ouijawaydidhego

[mikami]

Death Note Audio Drama 11

Disc 11: Flame - a summary / partial translation

Prior translations / an explanation as to what the fuck this is.

This disc features: a lot more infuriating debate between Mikami and Virilio (the writing team really can’t be bothered to even pretend Mikami has a point for the sake of narrative), an absolutely unreasonable amount of sex, and also someone being called a high functioning sociopath.........

_________

Aizawa and Mogi are out for drinks, because Aizawa wants to discuss Near’s suspicion. Aizawa wants to place Light under surveillance before. Aizawa is very frustrated with five years of investigation having gone nowhere yet.

Aizawa points out that the task force hasn’t been targeted by Kira for five years. They suspect the task force has been protected because Kira is among them.

__________

TITLE MUSIC

__________

We’re back on the TV debate program. Paula Virilio is giving a lengthy speech about things we don’t expect of minors and the responsibility society has over minors. She asks if criminal law regarding minors is meant to punish or to course correct and raises the thought of juvenile criminals growing up to be upstanding adults. 

TAKADA: General prosecutor Teru Mikami. I am sure you have an opinion on this matter.

MIKAMI: I do, indeed, Kiyomi. And not a very popular one, I’m afraid. 

VIRILIO: It is way too popular. That’s part of the problem.

MIKAMI: Please, Paula. I didn’t interrupt your lengthy answer either.

TAKADA: You’ve spoken about your personal involvement in this matter before.

MIKAMI: Yes. There are cases where I would have liked the criminal justice system to have punished more harshly. My own mother was killed by a teenager who was wasted behind the steering wheel of his car. Of course. I wish we’d have put him into jail before it got that far. My mother would still be alive then.

VIRILIO: This is bottom of the barrel and you know it.

MIKAMI: You’re the one who’s always so concerned about cases from real daily life. This was one.

VIRILIO: With all due respect, this is not a case from real daily life. It’s a personal anecdote. 

MIKAMI: I was merely 14. It felt pretty real to me.

VIRILIO: And the law is in place to protect us from our feelings. I am convinced you were angry and bitter and that you wanted revenge. But in my opinion that’s no reason to put a child that stole from the neighbourhood convenience store behind bars.

TAKADA: Harsh words and raw emotions tonight on our show. We’ll be back in a few minutes with the discussion between jurists Paula Virilio and Teru Mikami. Right after the break.

___________

Aizawa calls Near. Near asks for his argument that points toward Light’s innocence and Aizawa retells the confinement. Near is really outraged by all of their arguments. (He also points out during the mock execution that maybe Kira just needed to use their hands and that’s why nobody killed Soichiro). Near ends up practically yelling at Aizawa.

___________

TAKADA: Welcome back, dear viewers. With me are still Paula Virilio and Teru Mikami. We’re arguing about today’s topics and especially about the question of whether or not lawyers are still needed in this era of vigilante justice. Teru Mikami. You’re position is more towards the right on this.

MIKAMI: I don’t believe it’s right wing to simply want justice. I think there is one thing we can all certainly agree on: a lot of adult criminals are actually juvenile criminals who haven’t been stopped. Society would do well to step in earlier.

VIRILIO: Of course it should step in! But not with punishment! There are many ways to step in. Something that deeply unsettles me about Kira’s most recent victims is that even children who were still in school are among them.

MIKAMI: It doesn’t unsettle me in the slightest. I wish Kira had already been active when I was being beaten up by the bullies in my class.

VIRILIO: Is Kira supposed to take you too, when your girlfriend whom you dumped is airing dirty laundry on social media? Because that seems to be exactly what happened last week in Saitama. 

TAKADA: You are referring to the sudden death of a school boy who was wrongfully accused of bullying. Teru, your answer?

MIKAMI: If that is truly what happened, that is of course regrettable. False accusations are a crime as well though. And maybe it’s one this girl should pay with her life for.

VIRILIO: Oh please.

MIKAMI: Kira is making a better society! Without frauds, liars and thugs, we’ll all be better off.

VIRILIO: So slander is worthy of capital punishment now, yes? Quarrel on the schoolyard can cost your life?

MIKAMI: That’s not what I said.

VIRILIO: Oh, of course not! Let’s note down what my opponent is propositioning here. He thinks the poison that Kira’s vigilante justice has spread in society over the last years is already impacting the behaviour of our children.

MIKAMI: You’re putting words into my mouth. I don’t think Kira’s justice is a poison. 

VIRILIO: No, you truly don’t. You think it’s the best thing to happen to us since vaccination. Because you are - and now don’t take this personally - still stuck in the thought pattern of a little schoolboy who is too angry to see the greater context.

TAKADA: Allow me to interject here. Paula is referring to what I’ll cautiously call your... wild youth. Is it alright for us to discuss this here?

MIKAMI: I have some battles behind me. I defended other children against bullies. My conscience is clear.

VIRILIO: Your criminal record begs to disagree, Teru. You’re lucky your juvenile misdeeds didn’t stop you from becoming a lawyer. You’re lucky we all believe that you’ve always been at the right side of the fight. But if you were growing up today, one word on social media would be enough for your highly revered Kira would make you feel this childish sense of justice on your own body. 

MIKAMI: Kira is certainly not a child.

VIRILIO: A teenager, yes. At least that’s what he was five years ago.

TAKADA: That’s news to me, Paula. Could you explain in more detail?

_____________

Aizawa confesses his phonecall with Near to Light. He asks for Light’s permission to put him and Misa under surveillance. Light agrees, but tells them to not tell Misa.

____________

Misa welcomes Mogi and Aizawa in her... uh, Outfit. The apartment search plays out fairly similar to the manga. 

____________

Now we’re back on Kira’s Kingdom. Topic is the Kira temple that they built with donation money.

___________

Ryuk heavily criticizes Kira’s Kingdom for being a propaganda machine. Light agrees Demegawa outlived his usefulness. And then Demegawa dies on live TV, hurray.

___________

 Aizawa and Mogi communicate about Demegawa’s death and exchange the info that neither Light nor Misa have done anything suspicious at the time.

__________

Mikami and Ryuk talk about the Demegawa killing. Ryuk points out the difficulty of Kira no longer having a spokesperson. Mikami thinks of Takada.

__________

Swiftly done, Takada announces being Kira’s spokesperson on TV: The task force is outraged. But Aizawa recognizes Takada as Light’s college GF.

__________

Swimming pool noises.

RYUK: Your constant push for fitness really suits you, Light. The midlife crisis doesn’t stand a chance against you. 

LIGHT: Very funny.

RYUK: Alright. I know why you’re really here. No bugs.

They discuss Mikami picking Takada. Both Light and Ryuk thought he’d pick Virilio as a spokesperson (he only said ‘that woman I am always on TV with’). Light is displeased because Takada is his ex and has direct ties to him. (”She’s got my number, quite literally.”) 

__________

Light calls Takada. Woohoo. Light wants to meet her at a hotel, you know the drill.

__________

Meanwhile investigators are still chilling with Misa. She made popcorn.

__________

Mello calls Near again. He doesn’t think Misa is Kira II, since he’s been stalking her for a while already. Misa and the investigators are playing board games. 

Near is amused. “While you’re still following the old Kira, my guys are already on the heels of the new one.”

__________

Takada and Light had sex at the hotel. Congrats on the sex, guys??? Her phone rings after that. She claims its just her alarm and goes to shower, but of course it is not the alarm. Light picks up. It’s Mikami/Kira! 

__________

Near explains his theory of an X-Kira to his team. They suspect the person who picked Takada already knew she is a Kira-follower, despite her not showing this opinion in public. They search Takada’s social group.

Gevanni and Lidner suggests Mikami as X-Kira, since he’s public-ally Kira’s biggest fan.

Near and the SPK are traveling to Tokyo. Gevanni is assigned to tail Mikami.

__________

Light and Mikami communicate about plans. Then they hang up and Light confesses that he’s Kira to Takada, who’s back from the shower. Neither Mikami nor Takada actually ask for proof of his identity, but that’s fine I guess.

Takada and Light fuck again. Grats on the sex.

__________

L: Maybe Mello just got the wrong job.

RYUK: Stop sneaking up on me.

L: Look at him, down there. He’s been watching Light’s apartment for two whole days. You rarely see this level of commitment from normal policemen. 

RYUK: Hah. Are you gonna tell him? Or should I?

L: Tell him what?

RYUK: That he’s wasting his time. Misa isn’t worth it.

L: That’s not very nice.

RYUK: No, I mean she doesn’t remember a thing anymore. Not a single death note she touched, no murders, nothing about the years she did Light’s dirty work.

L: I am grateful that you’re freely admitting that I was right the whole time. And this also explains why she’s such a wreck. 

RYUK: What are you talking about? She loves it. She wanted this stuffy life with Light from the very beginning. 

L: The person you’re describing is a high-functioning sociopath. A mass murderer. A criminal.

RYUK: Yes, I always liked her.

L: You can’t just cut out a part of such a person without them collapsing inward. 

RYUK: Yes, maybe.

L: Misa has always been unstable. Kira was the center of her world, for a lot of reasons. You think this is some kind of mental witness protecting program? You’re wrong about that. It’s lobotomy. 

_________

Near tells Light that he’s in Japan. He tells Light that he is using himself as bait and tells Light to tell Takada that they’re following here. Since Kira would want to finish them once and for all.

_________

Takada calls Mikami and asks for the notebook pages.

_________

Light comes home to Misa. Misa’s been drinking heavily. It’s a regular thing, every night now. She half-remembers doing something together with Light, but not what. She’s desperate to recall what they once shared.

_________

Gevanni is watching Mikami’s daily life and updating Near. Near is secretly meeting Aizawa.... in a bar. Near is in a bar. Not a drill.

Near hears that Light is fucking Takada, and he’s outraged, because that prevented bugs on their first meeting. Near is just. so fucking pissed.

_________

Misa and Takada meet at the TV station, since Misa is going to be a guest on the show. She’s supposed to talk to the death of her parents and her stalking incident on TV. 

Takada lists things that are hard on Misa, and she mentions a break-up. Misa is understandably confused.

_________

Mikami killing the drunk harasser on the train, confirming his X-Kira identity to Gevanni. Mikami is somehow reading a greek newspaper???? And he’s wearing a hat. Apparently he’s famous enough that he needs this to not be approached in public.

_________

Mogi tries to pick up Misa from the TV studio, but she isn’t there. She’s been crying. The interview on the show upset her, since they treated her as a random civilian with a Kira-story rather than as a celebrity. 

Misa wants Mogi to drive her to the Hotel Imperial, since that is where Takada went. 

_________

Near and Gevanni discuss the possibility of Mikami having a shinigami who could warn him about surveillance.

__________

Misa approaches Lidner in front of the Hotel, asks her about her bodyguard work.

__________

We hear Light and Takada having sex. Again.

During the act, Takada confronts Light on Misa not knowing about the break-up. 

Matsuda is listening in and commenting on this love triangle for a bit.

__________

Misa waits until Takada comes out from the Hotel room. She tells her that Light is hers. Takada calls bullshit and points out that Misa doesn’t even remember anything about her and Light’s story. She also calls out that Light never wanted to date Misa and only attached herself to Light.

It’s just... a giant bash-fest. In this universe, Misa never had major work again after the movie during the Yotsuba-arc. She spent the past 5 years pretty much exclusively working as Kira, but of course, she can’t remember what she did.

Also we get the absolute worst dialogue ever:

TAKADA: Also... do the Bechdel test sometime.

MISA: How dare you! I don’t have an STI!

TAKADA: You only ever talk about him. He’s all you got.

After a few more insults, Misa has to be physically held back from attacking Takada. 

MISA: Light Yagami is mine!

TAKAKDA: Light Yagami? This whole time, I was talking about Kira.

MISA: ... what?

___________

Near and Aizawa figure out that Light and Takada are talking via notes in truth.

___________

Gevanni updates Near on Mikami’s gym schedule. Gevanni says he can open the locker and then does so. He takes the Death Note.

[a-ghoulette-named-wave]

Metallion Magazine n°112

I bought this magazine solely because I saw Devin Townsend name on the cover. And I spent an hour translating from French to English his little interview about his newest album: Empath.

@atchela, I think you could be interested!

                                            Devin Townsend

                                                  Live Free

 Devin Townsend has for most of his time worked in total independance, in order to never restrain his inspiration. It was wondering when he would kick in the anthill again and fire his pals of the Devin Townsend Project. Well, it’s done, after ten years of loyal service ! Now, here comes Empath, one of the craziest albums of the maestro!

 How would you introduce Empath ?

 It depicts my midlife crisis. It summarizes perfectly all the styles I approached during my career. It is extremely diversified and emotional, going from rock to extreme metal through jazz and musicals, it reflects a whole load of colours. I hope it will warm the hearts of the fans because it’s an anti-depression album. I needed to compose in this way, having been victim of severe depressions myself.

 Can it be compared to Infinity (1998) ?

 When I composed Infinity, I was far younger. The album was made in pain. I was litteraly obsessed by the writing, and psychologically, I was not doing well. At the time, I was sure that music came from my “inner self”. With Empath, the diversity is similar, but the spirit is different because the music does not really come from me. It is inspired by the nature of my environment.

 Empath is also the beginning of a new era since the members of the Devin Townsend Project have not been invited. Do you think this opus wouldn’t have been possible with them?

 Yes, I think so. If I had kept the same line-up, I wouldn’t have could fully express myself. Devin Townsend Project was a band of progressive hard rock, which limited me... Empath was clearly not compatible with the idea of the band. After years spent with those guys, the relations have evolved. They became my friends. At first, I thought I could afford to be guiding and say them: “You must play it that way!”. But towards the end, I saw clearly that I could not impose my vision of music to them, I had to extract myself from here.

 Was the moment of separation sad?

 Yes, very sad! You know, the problem was not only artistic, it was also financial. For the band to function, we had to produce between fifteen thousands and twenty thousands of dollars by month.

My music is selling well but it is not so much. In order to maintain the salary of everyone, I had to release two discs a year and spend my life on the roads, far from mines. In the end, I was trapped in a gear preventing me from doing any pause. The pressure was immense! I ended up giving up everything, not without giving to each member of the band three months worth of salary so they could have time to flip.

Once the split was official, it was not question of making compromises anymore. Things had to be done in the best way.

If I wanted an orchestra, a choir or I don’t know what, it had to be this way.

 You still kept Anneke from this period. She seems like you right-hand woman, participating to most of your projects...

 She was not a member of the Devin Townsend Project, or at least not a salarian. She was there as a guest, always having the kindness to help me when I needed. It may be why our collaboration goes on.

 Do you remember the first time you heard her sing?

 Oh yes! I was in a friend’s car and we were listening to Mandylion (1995) by The Gathering. I was instantly spellbound, but our meeting happened only twenty years later.

 You have another famous guest on the album, Steve Vai. How did you end up collaborating with him once again?

 Steve made a solo on the final part of the track “Singularity”. I must admit that at first, I had thought of Vernon Reid from Living Colour, who is one of my friends, but he did not have time to help me.

So Vernon contacted Steve, who called me and said: “If you want a solo, you will have it!”.

 A few years ago, you expressed some bitterness towards Terry Bozzio who participated like you to the album Sex and Religion (1993) from Steve Vai. Terry did not like you and took you for a novice. With time, did you try reconnect with him?

 No! And I must admit that I have been too critical with him. Maybe I should not have...

Indeed, he was not particularly friendly, but I think I overreacted. I only have good things to say about his battery skills. That being said, I don’t really want to see him again.

 Will Empath be playable on stage?

 It will have to be. I intend to play all of it by 2020. To build this project, I already know I will have to call the three drummers who played on the album, Morgan Agren (for the free jazz ambiances and improvisations), Anup Sastry (for the progressive parts) and Samus Paulicelli for everything metal. To this will be added the choir, the orchestra, two keyboarders, three guitarists, a bassist and a percussionist, but it will take time.

For the moment, I am starting a tour alone with my accoustic guitar.

 Your project seems to be on the same level as The Retinal Circus (2013)...

 It is far more ambitious! From a financial point of view, I will only be able to set up this king of show in a few cities. I will have to think of a less ambitious formula with “lighter” rearrangements, probably one metal oriented show and another one more prog’.

 “Detox” seems to be the only title from Strapping Young Lad that you accept, playing it during The Retinal Circus. Do you still reject the band?

 During the last ten years, I admit I did everything to expulse Strapping Young Lad from my mind. But Empath changed my relation with metal, that I learned to reappreciate, I am not afraid or ashamed anymore to confess that metal is full well a part of my personnality.

 In “Detox”, you scream this phrase on loop: “Hey you Mo’!”. What does that mean?

 “Mo” is the abreviation of Moron, a typical Canadian expression meaning: idiot, silly, retarded.

And to avoid people misunderstanding, it’s me that I qualify of imbecile in this track! (Smiles)